First of all, I want to say a HUGE "Thank You!" to my friend DestielLove1 for all the shoutouts to this story. If you are a aren't following her and you are a huge KLAYLEY/KLAYLOPE fan like me, then you really need to check out her fics- they're AWESOME! You can also find her on Twitter as KlayleyAddict- definitely worth the follow!

Secondly, thanks to all of you who read, followed/faved and reviewed PART ONE. It means a lot, guys!

Klaus sighed as he made his way up to Hayley's room, a steaming hot cup of bourbon-laced cocoa clasped tightly in his hand. Something about his little chat with her earlier had left him feeling deeply troubled, and after steeling himself with a few stiff drinks, he'd made her a cup of her favourite French-Quarter cocoa and headed upstairs to find out just what it was that was upsetting her. He found her poorly displayed, 'I'm so fine' façade to be immensely worrying.

Worrying about Hayley seemed to be something that he found himself doing an awful lot as of late.

Not that he'd ever admit that out loud, of course.

Klaus had always been able to read Hayley with the utmost ease, mostly because they were so alike and he knew himself oh, so well. Maybe even a little too well. That was why he knew that Hayley had been more deeply rattled by whatever she'd seen inside his brother's Red Door than she was letting on, but whatever it had been, the loss of a mask of civility and a few less of Elijah's silk handkerchiefs certainly wasn't it. To say that he knew she was merely holding back would've been a colossal understatement, and he knew it, too.

Oh, boy did he know.

He could feel it— a deep, rattling sense of dread shuddered in his bones, and he knew that he was picking it up off Hayley. He wasn't sure how, but he knew. Maybe he did have an idea, but he pushed it to the far corners of his mind, into the darkest of shadows where not even the great, almighty King, Klaus Mikaelson dared venture.

Maybe it's just a wolf thing, he told himself forcefully. Or a Hybrid thing.

Far better for him to believe that as the reason for his extra-sensory perception, than the all too confronting one of what he knew was right.

No.

Despite the truth of it, Klaus refused to allow himself to go down that path, no matter how much he may have desired to. He loved and respected his brother far too much to betray him in such a profound manner; especially since antagonizing family members was something he was trying to do less of these days.

Before he knew it, Klaus had reached Hayley's room. His thoughts immediately abandoned, he hovered outside the door for a moment and strained his ears against the deafening silence to listen for her heartbeat, unsure of whether or not he was doing the right thing.

He'd expected to hear the even, peaceful rhythm of sleepy breaths, exhaling in time to her steady heartbeats that indicated she was asleep.

He didn't.

Klaus was used to the sound of both Hayley and Hope's normal slumbering rhythms from all the times he'd listened to them as a comforting way of lulling himself to sleep, and this certainly wasn't it.

Something was wrong.

Hayley's normally steady heartbeat was almost erratic, and her breathing sounded heavy. Klaus' chest tightened in worry, and before he knew it, he found himself rushing into the dimly lit room, overflowing with concern for the mother of his child, consequences of his actions be damned. In that moment he didn't care about anything other than making sure Hayley was alright. He'd known something had been off with her earlier; she was never one to let her emotions show for, like him, she hated showing her weaknesses but Klaus had found himself being able to stare right through the crumbling walls of her façade, straight into the treacherous breaches of her heart. Hayley never let that wall she'd built around her heart crumble for anyone. Not even for a second.

That is how Klaus had known she wasn't fine.

He knew she wasn't fine, because he knew himself. Though, only two people in his entire lifetime had given him reason to feel the way he sensed that Hayley was feeling— utterly betrayed. One was Rebekah with her plot to rid the world of him forever, and the other was Elijah. Not even Mikael had caused him as much heartache, considering Klaus was already painfully aware of how much he was hated by that man. But, betrayal…? Betrayal from those he trusted the most had been the blades that had cut him the deepest and damaged him to his innermost core.

Klaus had a feeling about the dark place Hayley's grief had blossomed from. He hoped to God that he was wrong.

The second that he entered the younger hybrid's grand bedroom, Klaus spotted Hayley writhing in her bedcovers, her silken sheets wrapped mercilessly around her lithe body and her normally passive face contorted into a painful grimace. Klaus immediately knew that Hayley was in the midst of a particularly nasty nightmare, and without a second thought, he left the cup of coca abandoned on her dresser and vamped across the room towards the younger hybrid.

Klaus was by no means a comforting person, he knew that with all his heart; but for whatever reason, he always seemed to bring forth his most protective, kind aspects whenever it was Hope or Hayley in need of them. It is merely the byproduct of my Alpha-male, heightened, hybrid emotions and the shared blood between my child and her mother, nothing more, he thought. Again, he told himself that his protectiveness towards Hayley had nothing more to do with his so-named 'affections' than Shakespeare had to do with the Sun.

Again, he knew that was the furthest thing from the truth, no matter how hard he wished to believe otherwise.

"Hayley," Klaus whispered to the younger hybrid as he hovered cautiously beside the bed, his chest tightening uncomfortably when he heard her mutter something under her breath in a pained whisper. "You need to wake up, love. You're having a nightmare."

"Uuhh," Hayley choked out, her feeble voice barely above a whisper. "Gewayfrme…"

Klaus frowned down at Hayley, the pit in his stomach deepening in concern as he sat himself on the edge of the bed and took in the sight of her ghostly-white features. "I didn't quite catch that love," he told her quietly. It wasn't like he was lying— he had heard her quite well, he just wasn't sure what she'd said.

"I SAID GET AWAY FROM ME!" Hayley screeched at the top of her lungs in a high-pitched wail. Though still soundly asleep, Hayley sat bolt upright in the bed and shoved Klaus away from her with every ounce of her hybrid strength, successfully throwing him into the opposite wall with a reverberant crash.

Klaus was completely dumbfounded.

Though he knew that her fearful anger was meant for whomever it was she was yelling at in her dream, a gripping sense of dread filled him at the mere thought of Hayley speaking to him like that. He'd both been there, and done that before, and it was certainly not something he ever wanted to hear her say to him again. Ever.

In all honesty, every single time Hayley had ever yelled at him, the truth of her words had hurt him far more deeply than he cared to admit. Over time, her opinion had been one he valued above all others, and to be rejected by Hayley, the only person he considered an equal... well, the thought nearly destroyed him.

Across the room, Hayley let out another, equally violent scream which effectively pulled Klaus away from his thoughts. The mirror above his head splintered at the sound, and even the cup of cocoa on the dresser shook with the vibration.

He pulled himself up off the floor, and before anyone could say vampire, Klaus was back at Hayley's side, gripping her arms lightly as he gently tried to shake her out of her trauma-inducing nightmare.

"Hayley, wake up love," he said softly, being careful not to startle Hayley too badly. If he did, well... let's just say he knew he wouldn't be awake for several hours at the least.

For a moment, Hayley stilled and her face regained some of its peaceful composure.

Just as Klaus let out a breath he didn't even know he'd been holding in however, Hayley screamed again and thrashed about like a wild animal caught in the painful throes of a hunter's trap.

Fearing that something was immensely wrong, Klaus shushed the younger hybrid and tried to wake her again, but still, she screamed and thrashed.

That was not his Hayley.

His Hayley would never allow for such violence inside the compound when her daughter was sleeping in the room next door. Never.

"Hayley, listen to me," Klaus began, his voice taking on a frantic, slightly louder tone. "You need to wake up. You need to wake up n—

The rest of his sentence was drowned out by the utterly overpowering sound that suddenly escaped from Hayley's already open mouth. "Please don't," she wailed desperately, reaching up to grab the lapels of Klaus' thousand-dollar coat. "ELIJAH!"

And there it is, Klaus thought bitterly, letting go of Hayley's shoulders and moving away from the bed as though he'd been stung by something. He felt like he'd been stabbed in the chest with an electrified poker. Truth be told, he'd been waiting for Hayley to call out to his 'noble' brother for a while now, he'd only hoped that he didn't hear it.

Klaus didn't know why he was so upset; because it wasn't jealousy he was feeling in this moment. No. It was a mixture of regret for telling Hayley what she'd wanted to hear earlier, thus further cementing his brother's place at the forefront of her mind, and foolishness for thinking that she'd even wanted or needed him to comfort her in the first place, when in actual fact, it was he who needed her to get though the loss of Elijah.

Klaus ceased his nervous pacing and let slip a derisive scoff when he realised that Hayley and Hope had been the only two people keeping his sanity in tact since his brother had made his descent into the confines of Freya's pendant. For a while, he actually believed that Hayley had sought out his comfort, as he so wordlessly sought out hers. He thought that she had finally begun to sympathasise with him, feel sorry for him at the loss of his brother. Klaus felt a the final, intact fragment of his spirit shatter at that final realization; Hayley was never going to need or want him in her life. She never had, and she never would. She merely tolerated him for the sake of Hope, and nothing more.

Fancy letting himself believe even for a second, that anyone besides Hope loved him enough to actually care.

He should have known, though; the thing that had been affecting Hayley earlier was not the trip inside the pendant, nor could it possibly have been the harsh truths she had seen behind Elijah's Red Door. No. Her reaction was merely a manifestation of the emotions that seeing Elijah in his limbo state had triggered, and nothing else. It couldn't be anything else, for if Klaus had learned one thing where Hayley and Elijah were concerned, it was that both of them were willing to look past anything, to excuse anything if it meant they could be together. It seemed to be the only thing that made sense.

As Klaus felt his final shred of hope for Hayley, Hope and himself to one day be a proper family slip between his fingers, he let out a deep, pained sigh and made for the door. With one last, lingering glance over his shoulder at Hayley, he gripped the doorknob and turned the handle.

"AARGH! ELIJAH NO!"

Klaus turned at the sound of Hayley's terrified voice and despite himself; he was back at her side in an instant.

"ELIJAH!" Hayley screamed again, still thrashing about in a tangle of her bedcovers as though she was trying to escape something that was hunting her down.

"Hayley," Klaus said firmly, trying his best not to shout in panic as he tried again to wake her up.

No response.

She was really beginning to scare him.

"HAYLEY, bloody wake up will you?" Klaus demanded this time, the control over his already heightened emotions slipping through the cracks with each passing second. In a last-ditch attempt to bring Hayley out of her nightmare, Klaus grabbed onto her hands as they came past his face and then suddenly, he found himself being thrown straight into Hayley's memories.

Whatever the memory, Klaus was surrounded on all sides by a dense, almost black forest tinged with the faintest hint of an eerie glowing blue that reminded him greatly of the Hollow. Something about his surroundings immediately set the already paranoid Klaus Mikaelson on edge, and just like that, his guard was up and he was ready for a fight.

Klaus cautiously made his way through a particularly nasty thicket of trees and came out in a clearing where a stone fireplace sat proudly, gloriously alight with a freshly-lit fire that flickered and danced in tune with the peaceful breeze. It almost would have been nice, if not for the pile of bodies that were laying haphazardly about the clearing. A chill ran through Klaus' veins at the sight before him. It was a sight he knew all too well, and hoped that he'd never had to look upon again.

Elijah.

Klaus was inside Hayley's memory, which meant that he was had to have been baring witness to whatever it was she had seen inside the pendant. He was behind his brother's Red Door.

That's when he heard it.

Hayley's terrified screams ricocheting through the night air as clear as day. In all the time Klaus had known her, he had never known her to be scared of anything. Not once, not ever. Now was a different story. She was screaming like a helpless lamb, and it was his brother's doing. Klaus knew it was. Like he'd already concluded, nothing seemed able to affect his fellow hybrid quite like Elijah did, with the exception of Hope, of course.

"ELIJAH, STOP!"

Hayley's voice cut through the night as cleanly as a sword made of diamond glass, and just like that, Klaus found himself following the sounds of her screams to an extremely dark part of the woods, just beyond the clearing. Without a single moment of hesitation, Klaus vamped through the icy night, coming to a stop right before a scene that stopped his already frozen heart.

He arrived just in time to see Elijah, the brother he looked up to, admired and loved so much, throwing the mother of his child against a tree as easily as one would throw a paperclip into the wastepaper basket. The sight of Elijah hurting Hayley in such a profoundly disturbing, merciless and animalistic way left him feeling weighed more heavily with guilt than he'd been in his entire life. That could easily have been him, had they not spent so much time trying to become partners for the good of their daughter, and the thought of such a thing made him utterly sick.

The sight was vile and abhorrently disturbing, even for him. He couldn't possibly begin to imagine what Hayley must've been feeling, considering the height of the marble pedestal he knew she held his brother so firmly upon. He was sure that this betrayal would ruin her, and his heart ached at the thought. Usually he could find the right thing to say and offer comfort to his family members in the way of his finest bourbon and several smarmy jokes, but this was an occasion like no other. He wasn't sure what he could do or say to make anything better. He was even sure that it was possible. How did one even begin to come back from such a horrific experience?

He should know, considering the five, long, tormenting years he spent chained in the darkness. Just because he didn't talk about it, by no means meant that the suffering was no longer there. Guilt rattled him then, for the second time in as many minutes. Had he not done the exact thing to Hayley when he condemned her and the rest of her pack to their wolf forms for six months? That had been one of the gravest mistakes of his entire thousand-year life, and it was now that he regretted it more than ever. He wished with all his heart that he could take it back— take all of it back really, and return to the start of Hayley's pregnancy. To be there for her and Hope from the very beginning, as the man he was now, the one he'd grown to be because of Hayley and Hope.

Another ear-splitting scream that was more terrifying than the unnerving wail of a banshee, sliced through the air and chilled Klaus to his very core. His eyes snapped to Hayley, who was being held against a tree by Elijah's firm fist, the very same one that was clutched tightly around her throat.

Klaus felt near-paralised and utterly helpless. He couldn't seem to move for he was too deeply rooted in his own shock. Of all the people his brother had hurt over the years, he was sure that Hayley would have never been one of them.

He guessed he'd been wrong.

That was when he remembered; he was inside a memory. He was reliving Hayley's worst nightmare as she slept. All he had to do was pull her free from it. The thought came, and just like that, Klaus found himself able to move. He zoomed past Elijah, who it seemed, hadn't even seen him, and gripped Hayley's tense form by the shoulders.

She screamed again, and Klaus scrunched up his face at the turbulent sound. By Gods does she have a set of lungs on her, he thought with a grimace.

"Hayley, it's me," he said softly, causing her to look up at his face. The instant that their eyes met, Elijah's grimly sadistic form faded into the darkness, earning a sigh of relief from both hybrids.

"…Klaus?" Hayley whispered his name as a question, her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. "What—?"

"It's alright love, I've got you," Klaus assured her, reaching out to softly brush a leaf out of her hair, trying with all his might to ignore the feelings that stirred within him at her mere presence.

Hayley offered Klaus the tiniest of smiles, but no matter how small it was, at least he knew that it was genuine.

"You were having a nightmare," he continued after a moment of comfortable silence passed between them. "All you have to do is let go."

Hayley considered his words for several seconds, before she finally nodded and closed her eyes, exhaling one single, deeply pained breath. Klaus followed suit, and when he opened his eyes again, he was sitting on the side of Hayley's bed once more, looking down at her as her eyes fluttered open and looked up at him guiltily.

"Why did you fail to tell me this earlier," Klaus bit out before he could stop himself. "Did you not think I was worth informing of such atrocities?"

"Don't get on my case Klaus!" Hayley snapped defensively, bristling immediately at the older hybrid's comment.

Klaus sighed when he saw fresh tears pricking at the corner of her eyes and bowed his head shamefully. "I apologise, Little Wolf. You'll have to excuse me if I'm a bit shocked by these revelations."

"You want to know why I didn't tell you, Klaus, hmm..? Well, apart from you not being the most important person in the entire world— yeah, that's right, I said it so you can stop looking at me like that," She added sarcastically before continuing, "I didn't want you seeing E— your brother like that," Hayley finished, he voice unintentionally hitching on the elder brother's name.

Klaus looked at Hayley in shock. Even now, with everything that she was going through, she still managed to put his needs before her own. He looked into her eyes, and saw just how much she was hurting. He saw it, and his heart broke for her.

Hayley, no matter what she had or had not done in the past, did not deserve the treatment that she had received at the hands of his brother. No woman did. Ever.

Hayley had been the person who gave his family hope for the first time in a millennia both literally and metaphorically, and the first to save every single one of them without a secret agenda. In his eyes, she deserved the world.

"Just what did my brother do to you in there, Hayley?" Klaus asked eventually, the heaviness in his heart weighing oh-so apparently on his words.

Hayley opened and closed her mouth several times before finally finding her voice. "Elijah… h-he," she croaked weakly, the words too painful for her to say aloud. She met Klaus' unwavering, concerned stare, and let the tears she'd been holding back flow freely down her face.

Klaus was on her in a second.

He took her into his strong-armed, warm embrace and placed one hand firmly on her upper back, allowing his hand to curl over the spot where he knew her Crescent birthmark sat on her skin.

"I am so sorry you had to go through that, Hayley," he whispered softly against her ear, feeling the shiver that ran through her at the contact. "So, so sorry."

Hayley pulled back from Klaus ever so slightly, and inclined her head at something over his shoulder. "Klaus…?" she asked confusedly.

"Yes love?"

"What the hell is that doing up here?" She indicated the mug on her dresser with a look of distaste, which caused Klaus to smile down at her impishly.

"Ahh…" he began with a little snigger. "That would be the Cocoa I brought up here for you, the one you would've had, had you not thrown me against the wall."

"Oh, that was real…? I'm sorry Klaus," Hayley apologised, a look of genuine guilt being cast in the glow of her giant hazel eyes.

"It is all but forgotten. In fact, we need not mention it again," Klaus assured her, earning a quiet scoff from the younger hybrid in front of him. "What?"

"Can't you ever say something like someone from this century? You know, like someone who's not one freaking thousand years old, considering someone your age shouldn't even exist."

"But I am, and I do!" He exclaimed with a little side grin. "I needn't see any reason—

"There you go again! Are you incapable of restraining yourself, or do you simply take pride in being an ancient-ass dick?" Hayley joked, watching as his lips curled up into an amused smile.

"I guess you'll never know. A mystery, it shall forever remain."

"Did you really bring that drink up here for me?" Hayley said unexpectedly, her face turning serious with a simple furrow of her brows she watched Klaus give a single nod in reply. "Thank you."

"It was your favourite; New Orleans' finest cocoa, laced with my expensive bourbon— A bloody waste of it too, I might add—

"Shut up! You're loaded; I don't know why you're complaining. I'm the one that missed out here, buddy."

Klaus smiled his most genuine smile at that.

Sass; Hayley's default setting. It may have been as annoying as hell, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't like it.

Just as he was about to get to his feet and bid Hayley goodnight, she touched him lightly on the crook of his elbow, sending a shockwave of warmth spreading throughout his chest and he immediately knew what she was going to say before the words had even left her mouth.

"Stay with me?" she asked, her voice as unsure and feeble as he'd ever heard it. At their deepest cores, he and Hayley were identical; equally damaged, and dangerously venerable to the dark hostile forces of life. "Please?"

He tried to ignore it, he really did. He tried and he failed.

Who was he kidding? He could never say no to her. Hell, even if he said no, when Hayley said yes, he always let her have her way. That's how much he respected her.

"It's okay, though. I'll completely understand if you don't want to—"

The pull to stay with Hayley was real. He knew it was there; he'd known for a long time, but now, after what he'd seen tonight, he could ignore it no more.

"Of course I'll stay, Hayley. After everything you've done for my family, this menial ask is less a worry than a ship passing in the night…" Klaus trailed off when he noticed her unimpressed glare, and struggled to keep a grin from forming on his face. "It is nothing, Little Wolf."

Hayley just smiled at him as he pulled up a chair beside the head of her bed, not wishing to push the boundaries to her personal space on what had already been a traumatising day for her. Klaus settled himself in the chair and watched Hayley as she nestled back under the covers with a little smile gracing her breathtakingly beautiful face.

Even when she was a mess, Klaus saw the pure beauty she carried. She was a star that shone so brightly, he was sure even a blind man would see it.

"Thank you, Klaus. For everything today," she said to him sleepily from her place on the pillow.

"Whether you like it or not Hayley, you are a Mikaelson now. Furthermore, you are Hope's mother. You can ask me for anything without fear of doing so, and I will do my best to give you whatever it is that you desire, Always and Forever," Klaus whispered as he watched his Queen drift off to sleep.

He meant what he said. Nothing was too big of an ask for the woman who had given him everything he had ever wanted, and it never would be. No matter what terror the Hollow was going to rain down upon them, Klaus remained sure of one thing: he would never stop being the best version of himself, for by way of thanking Hayley and Hope for the impossible task that was loving him, it seemed a good a place as any to start.

A/N: Just a quick reminder that reviews are always welcomed and much appreciated by me ;)

Hope you enjoyed, Donna xxx